The Midwest Beat challenges you to a staring contest in new music video

After releasing a music video; streaming its album; and playing four combined release shows in Milwaukee, Green Bay, and Madison, you’d think The Midwest Beat’s latest and greatest album, Free Of Being, has been out for months by now. Think again. Miraculously, the record much of Wisconsin has been enjoying for weeks is finally celebrating its actual national and international release date today. In honor of the long-awaited day, the band (and its U.S. label, Dusty Medical Records) thought it fitting to also release another music video for the occasion.

Filmed in The Midwest Beat’s quaint practice space, the video for second single “Blank Stares” finds the band, fittingly, employing the concept of mugging dead-eyed into the camera. The psychedelic low-budget video was filmed by drummer Chris “Chopper” Capelle in his basement after a band practice last July. He says he used layered images, changing camera speeds, color manipulation, and a fish eye lens to give the video “a claustrophobic feel.”

“The look comes from wanting a quick, interesting, simple idea that didn’t cost anything to make and could be edited together fairly quickly,” Capelle says. No word on his motivation for using the decorative snowman.